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Comment by nether | Hacker News Reader

Soylent had exceptionally poor order handling prior to their latest round of funding. The way they've run their business and development seems like a total joke. 6-10 month order delays over a year since they started selling? (Not to mention charging orders before shipping) "Most scientific food" - zero clinical trials? Are you shitting me?

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Might want to read this:

https://medium.com/@alando46/how-we-spent-500-on-tech-to-shi...

If you knew how most modern warehouse/shipping facilities ran their IT, your head would spin.

Figures. They overbuilt their public-facing web system, and underbuilt their fulfillment system. Reading that, you can see the problem - their order system, fulfillment system, and order tracking system didn't talk to each other properly. You don't just ship stuff blind; you read back the carrier's online shipping data and match it with the orders, so you know you didn't miss anything. Otherwise, you don't know you screwed up until the angry customer calls you.

It's also crazy that they don't let you order one sample to test it. There is no way I will pay $70 for 28 meals if I don't know if I will like it.

I think the expectation that you'll like it on the first try is low. Maybe they're hoping you'll get used to it. :)

Their order times are actually really low now (a few days). Customer satisfaction is much higher now as well.

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